Let's see Tim Tebow get a chance at starting as a quarterback in the NFL in 2013. / Debby Wong, USA TODAY Sports

by Christine Brennan, USA TODAY Sports

by Christine Brennan, USA TODAY Sports

Sports fans can be a fickle bunch. Win and they collectively don't want to root for you anymore. Lose, or get injured, or get traded, or make a comeback, and they are most definitely on your side.

How else do we explain why LeBron James, Tom Brady, Bill Belichick, the New York Yankees and Alabama are among those that fans say they are rooting against in the coming year, according to a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll of 777 sports fans, while Derek Jeter, Peyton Manning and Tim Tebow are at the top of the list of who people are rooting for in 2013?

Of course, then there are the fans who feel strongly both ways. They are for James and against James, for and against the Dallas Cowboys, for and against the New England Patriots.

While these fans are exercising their inalienable right to cheer or boo whomever and wherever they want, there are some athletes and teams that are specifically worthy of strong feelings, one way or another.

You'd have to be the most ardent and unreasonable Yankee hater to not hope to see Jeter (and Mariano Rivera) come back from injuries that ended their 2012 seasons. Future Hall of Famers such as those two should not end their careers writhing in agony, Rivera from an ACL tear in May, Jeter, a fractured ankle in October. Red Sox fans can still hope the Yankees go 0-162 with those two on the roster.

In golf, the old rivalries have been reshuffled and the newest and best is utterly irresistible: Tiger Woods vs. Rory McIlroy. The old saying goes that journalists "cheer for the story," so expect the press room to be pulling hard for that most compelling twosome in the final group on Sunday at the 2013 Masters. The stakes would be high: McIlroy would be trying for his first Masters victory after winning the 2011 U.S. Open and 2012 PGA Championship.

As for Woods, now 37, if he doesn't win the tournament, he will have squandered what annually is his best chance to win a major, and his winless streak in majors will have stretched to a stunning five years.

The story of Manning's comeback after not being wanted anymore in Indianapolis at 36 will play out even earlier, in the next few weeks with the Denver Broncos' playoff run. Manning's eyes welled in March when talking about saying goodbye to the equipment managers. It's hard not to want a guy like that to have a strong second act.

How about a real first act for another NFL quarterback? Make that wannabe QB. Tebow was the one leading a surreal playoff run for the Broncos a year ago, but since then he can barely buy a snap. Unless his Denver performance was all smoke and mirrors, he deserves one real chance to see if he can make it as a big-league quarterback.

Meanwhile, for the NFL at large, here's hoping for further medical research and increased vigilance and safety on the vitally important topic of concussions. It's the most important issue in sports today - throughout athletics, both for men and women, boys and girls - with performance-enhancing drug use and detection a close second. I think we'll be able to say that at the end of next year, too.

The Penn State football story is a complicated one. It's natural for many to still not be so sure how to feel about a university that kept enjoying football after it found out that Jerry Sandusky and the former leaders of that university caused the worst harm that has ever been inflicted by a college on its community.

The football program exists in a kind of purgatory that no one would wish for, ever. If Penn State had punished itself rather than wait for the NCAA to do it, a potential one-year death penalty would be ending this week, and Penn State would be beginning anew. Instead, the ankle-weight of the terrible transgressions carries on, and on, and on.

Penn State fans can only hope for more joy from the young athletes who had nothing to do with Sandusky, and keep their fingers crossed that coach Bill O'Brien doesn't decide to take one of the offers that will inevitably come his way.

While some root for individual stars, or their favorite team, pity the poor hockey fan who is simply rooting for a real game to be played. There's no nuance here, no specific cheering for the Detroit Red Wings or the Chicago Blackhawks. These fans are only cheering for the NHL to play this season. Let's hope the so-called leaders who once again have let a great sport go dark finally hear them.